Masters Message May 2018

Greetings My Brothers!

April was a long and arduous month in the quarries of Masonry. We had meetings on consecutive weeks, thanks to the March snow cancellation, and a service for our dearly loved Brother Edward L Calamar Jr. Our Master Mason degree brought new life to our six candidates. I look forward to the future of our Lodge with the motivated those Brethren joining the ranks of St Johns Lodge 1P. The April 18th DDGM visitation was quite the amazing night. The sidelines were full with over 130 in attendance for the festivities and all enjoyed the talk by our newest member, Brother Greer. My thanks to Brother Greer and everyone who made the DDGM visitation a special night.

The death of Eddie Calamar has been very difficult for our Lodge. He was a fixture in St. Johns 1P and embodied the qualities of a Freemason to his core. Brother Calamar did my investigation way back in 2003. It was a pleasant meeting and left me excited to join the Craft. As he stood to leave, he remarked in true Eddie Calamar form, “It wouldn’t hurt to shave better and shine your shoes when you come to Lodge.” On the evening of his Masonic Service, I was sure to shave extra close and put a shine on my shoes to make sure Eddie would be pleased. We’ll all miss him, but take solace knowing that we will always remember and honor him as a family.

Our May communication will be a good chance to explore both our history and our future. I will moderate a discussion, interviewing some of our Brothers, in the hopes of bringing us all closer together. I’d really like to learn what brought these men to Masonry, where they are in life, what stokes their passion, and what they’d like to see for the future of the Craft. After the Q&A period, RW Richard Fonseca Lynch will be opening the Unity Lodge cornerstone box. After such a busy April with long meeting nights, May will be a nice change of pace!

Please don’t forget that we will be continuing our collection of items for the Veterans’ Home and VA Hospital. All donations should be brand new, with tags affixed. A few of the items needed include: flip flops, elastic waist sweat pants, slippers, AA/AAA/C batteries, Kleenex, sunglasses, and sweaters. Any cash donations will be used for needed items as well.

I hope that everyone gets a chance to go enjoy the spring weather and shake off those long winter blues.